The Angry One
by smileymcface
Summary: A brief exploration into Jack in Mass Effect 2. Her adventures, her take on situations, and what it's like to be a tiny, "all powerful bitch." I'm taking a few liberties with the storyline, I just like her character. Please comment and tell me what you think.
1. Chapter 1

Sparks struck the wall near her bald head, with a curse Jack turned and threw a Shockwave in the general direction of the shot's origin and was forced to jump back as gunfire chased her behind a large metal crate that was nearby.

"Fucking robot." she whispered vehemently.

Behind her, she looked again at Legion, the "good-guy-geth" that Shepard's bleeding heart had decided should tag along with her on this mission, was firing his pulse rifle towards a lone collector trooper who was already missing the lower half of its body.

She yelled back to Legion, "Hey! How about some cover over here so I can, ya know, NOT DIE!"

Legion turned towards the small, cowering woman with a machine code blurt, and called out, "Affirmative." He reached over his shoulder and in a moment of robotic precision, used one hand to swap his pulse rifle for the sniper rifle that was his only companion during his time aboard the derelict reaper that Shepard saved him from mere days ago.

_Damn flashlight face better make this count._ Jack thought as she prepared to make a run for cover near the geth.

"You ready yet!?" she called.

The small metal sections that served Legion as "eyebrows" of a sort, twitched slightly as the rifle raised to his single eyepiece. "Momentarily." he said at half volume.

The rifle spat a ball of fire out of its muzzle and by the time Jack had blinked the purple after-image out of her retinas, thunder rolled again and her ears began to ring.

"Move up, Jack madam!" Legion called out as he reloaded a new heatsink into the breach of his rifle.

Breathing deeply, Jack pushed more energy into her barriers, stood up, and began to run. Legion looked down the barrel of his rifle towards the small, tattooed woman and took aim.

_Well shit Jack. _The convict sarcastically thought to herself,_ You're running towards a fucking geth that is aiming right at your face, you're gonna lose your head over this one sweetheart. Isn't it just great working with a team?_

With a roar, the rifle fired its payload just over Jack's left shoulder, the supersonic crack pounded into the side of her head and she screamed, clutching her ear, as she stumbled, then fell more than lept, down into the cover that Legion had just crouched behind.

Holding her ear with her left hand the furious biotic yelled, "That fucking HURT you psychotic robot!" Without reacting to her, Legion reloaded his sniper once again. Frustrated and in pain, Jack reached out with her right hand and punched Legion in his chest plate.

"OW FUCK!"

As the convict shook her freshly scraped fist while still holding her left ear, Legion looked over at Jack and asked politely, "Jack madam, are you well?"

Jack turned and, giving the geth a look that could have boiled lead replied, "I thought I told you stop stop calling me that metal-face."

An explosion nearby sprayed clumps of earth at them both and Jack made a face as she spat a wad of grass out of her mouth. Legion's omni-tool glowed burnt orange as the machine turned and fired a combat drone towards the collectors coming up behind them. "I would advise continuing this conversation in a different location." Legion said matter-of-factly as the drone began to engage the collector troopers.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever, lets just get out of here and meet up with doctor crazy at the dropship." Jack replied. "I'll toss 'em and run, you pick off the floaters, and then I'll cover you from up ahead. You cool?"

Legion turned the head of a running collector inside out with a shot from his sniper and ducked back down beside the biotic to replace the heatsink. "My internal temperature is well within optimum operating levels, Jack madam."

Power began to flow across Jack's skin as she muttered, "Whatever." The blue glow emanating from her began to grow and cast strange shadows across the ground. "Here we go!" she cried as she stood and unleashed her pent up energy with a violent upheaval of her arm and a wordless cry of aggression. The biotic field exploded just before her feet and continued rippling through the ground, detonating every couple of meters, tossing any collector near the detonations high into the air. A dashed, pale green line etched its way through the sky with an odd, high pitched chirping noise as Legion engaged the thrown enemies with his pulse rifle to ensure that after gravity brought them back to the ground, they would stay there.

Jack turned and ran past Legion, assault rifle fire flickering around her, just in time to see the final pieces of his sniper fold into place on his back._ Damn, robocop sure does swap guns in a hurry._ She thought as she passed the machine.

A few dozen meters ahead she turned and drew her old, battered pistol to cover the geth as he followed her run. She squeezed the trigger with reckless abandon, spraying the area around the geth soldier. Apparently her somewhat crazed gunfire was good enough cover fire as no collectors decided to come out from hiding and give chase. _Well thats fine by me, I'm fucking tired,_ she thought as Legion passed her on the way to more cover further on.

She thought back to earlier in the day when Shepard gathered his team of so-called "specialists," in the conference room of the Normandy, and told them about his plan to take out an Eclipse outpost that was causing trouble for nearby human colonists. _The Eclipse group is a fun bunch,_ Jack had thought with a grin._ Nothing beats winning a fight against another biotic._ Shepard decided to split the specialists into three separate teams of three. Leaving a squad of three with the ship just incase anybody needed backup. Shepard took the Zaed and Grunt for the assault on the front doors of the facility. The cheerleader Miranda deployed with Thane and Kasumi to sneak in the back and cause some chaos. Mordin, Legion, and Jack were given the "hold the landing zone" job. _I hate being left behind the fight_. Jack had thought at the time, only to be sorely mistaken about her role later on. The good doctor Mordin had flown everyone down in the dropship and the teams went their separate ways upon landing.

Soon after the teams separated, Legion noted that he was detecting an odd signal in the vicinity and went to go investigate its source, taking Jack in tow. What the pair found was a group of collectors and the convict and the machine had been fighting for their lives ever since. Now why the collectors happened to show up at an Eclipse base was anyone's guess, but Jack had a sneaking suspicion that whatever brought Shepard, had probably attracted the collectors as well.

"Hey metal-head!" Jack called out while exchanging her old pistol for her much newer shotgun. "Can you raise Mordin yet?"

"Negative Jack madam, the collectors are still somehow blocking my communications. I would suggest retreating to the dropship to confer with him in person." Legion replied

"Well isn't this just dandy." Jack muttered unhappily to herself. Raising her voice so the synthetic could hear her he called out, "Alright robobuddy! Back up some more to draw them in and see if I can't get closer to 'em. I'm shit at long range."

"Affirmative, Jack madam." Legion called back and stepped out into oncoming fire, shields flaring, and fell back to cover behind a wall a few meters behind her.

"I swear to God I'm going to kill that robot." Jack said under her breath.

Back on the Normandy, when Jack first met Legion, she had thought it would be funny if she told the geth that she was "Madam Jack," and that she was going to punish him if he was a bad geth. The machine never got the joke, and quite possibly did not even know what a dominatrix was. Perhaps for the first day it was funny, a robot calling her madam, but now, the stupid thing wouldn't quit calling her "Jack madam," like it was some grand rank, and it had really begun to annoy her.

_The middle of a firefight is probably the wrong time to care what the stupid thing is calling me, but hey, its been a weird fucking day._ Holding in her disdain over what hopefully wasn't about to become her permanent nickname, the small woman checked to ensure that her shotgun was fully loaded and ready to go.

The insect-like chittering of the collectors came closer and closer as Legion continued to engage them at range with the assault rifle. Then suddenly, a dull thud came from the other side of the shipping container she was hiding behind and the barrel of a collector rifle began firing just above her head. With a grim smile Jack closed her eyes and placed her hand against the side of the container and began to focus her energy around her hand. A small handprint began to burn its way into the container and the human biotic opened her eyes and thrust her hand forward.

A sharp pang rang through the air as the pulse from her biotics utterly destroyed the metal shell of the shipping container. Razor sharp shrapnel, and what appeared to be parts for an automated grass trimmer, were thrown away from the convict in a cone of destruction as the container and its contents were violently cast forward on a bow-wave of energy.

The small, tattooed woman came striding through the dust like Death's mistress. Tendrils of blue energy surrounded her as she poured power into her barriers once again and she ran past, and through, a few dead collectors and rushed towards the first intact enemy she saw. It was pinned to the ground by a shard of metal from the container and was making an odd shrieking noise. A blast from her shotgun silenced the keening noise and splattered her pants in gore.

Thunder erupted from behind her as Legion once again exchanged his pulse rifle for his sniper and began methodically picking off enemies that she had missed.

A beam of sickly yellow light cut through the air nearby and the biotic leaped to the side as the energy weapon played across her barriers. The collector assassin fired again, then turned and grabbed an odd looking backpack, stood, and began to run away from her as she reloaded her shotgun. _Thats right_, Jack thought to herself, _run away while you still can you alien pussy._ Then she heard a loud call from legion.

"Jack Madam." Legion called at his highest vocal setting while firing at another collector who was trying to flank her. "The assassin class collector is carrying a pack. This pack may be what is disrupting my communications array, we cannot let him escape."

Robocop almost sounds worried about this stupid pack. _Ol' well._ Jack thought,_ Ti__me to show flashlight face what an organic __can do_.

With a grim smile, Jack simply reached out a hand and a sharp blue tendril shot out of her palm and snared the collector with the pack. Yanking back her hand, now a clenched fist, the collector followed the motion of her hand and was violently yanked towards the small woman as she raised her shotgun once more.

_Can't have you running away from a fight now can we?_ Thought humanity's strongest biotic, as she aimed at the figure flying through the air towards her, and pulled the trigger.


	2. Chapter 2

**This is a re-write of chapter 2. If you read the original chapter 2, please let me know what you think of the new one. If this is your first read of chapter 2, then feel free to tell me what you think anyways, I'd love to hear feedback. Ha. but anyways, thanks for reading.**

* * *

Back on board the Normandy, Shepard and his team of specialists made their way towards the debriefing room. The high from the teams' various battles was wearing off and the specialists began to laugh and discuss their exploits of the day as they began to crowd into the conference room which was dominated by a large table. Jack hung towards the rear of the crowd, she never did feel overly comfortable in large groups, and Legion stepped forward, carrying the communications pack that the biotic had taken from the collector assassin whose head she had neatly removed with her shotgun.

The pack was basically a stiff rectangular backpack with an odd, coiled antennae coming off the top. The pack was a brown leather color except for the top and parts of the back of it which were still stained with spatters of the off colored, burnt orange color of collector blood. Jack grinned at her handy-work as the geth set the pack down on the table and stepped back into the group.

Shepard spoke up first, "So, the Illusive Man was right. I'm sorry to say it, but this pack is the reason I decided to raid the base." Shepard's gaze swept the room as he gauged the reactions from his small personal army. "Most of you have first-hand experience with collector jamming technology and somehow the Illusive Man knew that Eclipse had gotten ahold of a piece of that tech and so we went after it. He seems to feel that understanding exactly how the jamming system works should help keep our inter-squad communications working over long distances."

"Mordin?" The salarian doctor stepped forward with a grin, "Would you mind taking this thing apart and telling me what you can find out about it?" Shepard asked, knowing that the hyperactive doctor would _love_ the opportunity.

"Oh of course Shepard, it would be a pleasure. I will deliver my findings as soon as they are...ah...well...found." the genius stated brokenly in his excitement. "The help of a tech expert would be beneficial as well." the doctor mentioned as he began to pick at the straps holding the pack closed.

"True," said Shepard, "I'll call Tali up from engineering and get her to help. Anybody else have anything they want to mention?" He asked politely.

Surprisingly it was Legion who responded. "Shepard commander, I have an inquiry." The commander nodded his head in the direction of the geth. "Shepard commander, the presence of the collectors at the base was highly unlikely. Do we have a determinant for their presence?"

Shepard looked up at the ceiling as if praying to a higher power and said, "EDI, that seems to be something you would have a better answer for."

From the speakers in the ceiling, the bodiless voice of the ship's onboard AI responded, "The most statistically accurate reason, would be that the Eclipse mercenaries somehow acquired the technology against the collectors will and the collectors had come to the planet to reclaim what was theirs. It is also likely that the same information that was passed on to the Illusive Man, was received by the collectors."

Shepard did not seem very pleased with this possibility, but Legion thanked EDI for the concise response and stepped back into the group, apparently satisfied with the answer.

"Oh, and before I forget," Shepard continued, "a big congratulations to Jack and Legion for finding this communications tech in the first place. We all had our own missions to do, but the 'sentry team'," he actually made the quotes gesture with his fingers, "is the team that really saved the day. So well done you guys."

Jack felt her chest begin to swell with pride, only to have that pride turn to anger as all eyes in the room turned towards her and Legion. The biotic did _not_ like being the center of attention. The geth did not move or say anything to acknowledge the praise so Jack felt the need to say something and she blustered out with, "Oh, uhh, yeah, eh, it wasn't that big of a deal."

Everyone turned back to Shepard as he continued wrapping up his debriefing and Jack began to fume. _Putting me center-stage like that. Fuck you Shep. And fuck you too flashlight head, making me be the one to say something. God damn I'm stupid. Did you see their faces? Every single one of them had "shut the fuck up" written all over them. Well fuck them too. I swear..._

Her internal dialogue was cut short as Shepard dismissed the team and everyone turned towards the door that Jack was now leaning against. _W__ell fuck this,_ Jack thought, and turned to be the first one to the elevator. Literally hopping in the elevator, the small woman jammed the button to close the door and headed for the mess hall.

* * *

Back down in the lower levels of engineering, in her "cave," Jack was chowing down on something that Gardner swore to her was pasta, and even though it tasted like cardboard was a major ingredient, she rather enjoyed it. Years of claiming rations as food will do that to you; and one thing that Cerberus was good at, was trying to make things comfortable for humans.

Jack had only been on the Normandy for a few weeks, having been picked up from the prison-ship Purgatory a few days before Shepard went aboard the derelict reaper and found Legion, and the best thing so far for the life-long criminal, had been eating food that she didn't have to unwrap first. As she ate messily, and with relish, the ache in her stomach that always followed a good fight began to recede.

Any talented biotic will tell you that while the exercise of biotics can be very useful, it is also very tiring. For a biotic, the use of their biotics is similar to the use of any muscle on a "normal" human. Some muscles are stronger than others, some can work hard longer than others, but at the end of the day, after a hard, strenuous activity, those muscles become tired. This is the case with a biotic. A biotic uses their nervous system to manipulate dark energy, this manipulation is then assisted with implants that amplify the natural biotic potential in the individual. These implants interface directly with the biotic's nervous system, and the over-use of the nervous system burns huge amounts of energy, and will leave a biotic extremely hungry.

The strongest human biotic sat in the dark, listening to the quiet hum of the engines through the steel walls, and ate a huge helping of "pasta." Setting her now empty tray on the floor beside her, Subject Zero laid back on the cot that served as her bed, found her datapad, and began to read through the Cerberus databases that Shepard had given her access to. It was fascinating to see all of Cerberus' dirty secrets. Turns out that Cerberus already had a number of projects dedicated to "increasing human potential," but none of which seemed familiar enough for her to identify it as her birthplace.

Her birthplace. It shook Jack to realize that she considered the plain grey walls of that facility to be her birthplace, but it was true and she knew it. In the darkness, she felt safe. The facility was never dark, the doctors always wanted to be able to see her, to study her every move. Jack didn't know night from day until she escaped from the facility and saw that the light in the sky moves and even goes away. That's why she loved the dark so much, it meant the light that was always staring at her, always analyzing her, had gone away.

She lay comfortably in the dark, pouring over the databases and trying to ignore the flashbacks of her past, when she heard the doors to the elevator open down the hall. There was a pressurized door and a stairwell between her cot and the elevator, but in the silence, she could always hear it open.

_I wonder who is coming or going? _she thought to herself closing her eyes and trying to focus on the footsteps. She could barely make out the sound of feet hitting the deck. _So it's not Thane or Kasumi, those bitches are quiet._ The steps came closer and the pressure door at the top of her stairwell opened, allowing more sound in. _Boots, definitely boots, maybe Zaeed is coming to swap stories, or swap booze or whatever. _Glancing up towards the gaps between the stairs, she saw shiny combat boots start down the stairs. _Son-of-a-bitch. It's Shepard_

Sitting up in her cot she looked up at the Spectre as he walked into view. "Hey Shep." she called throwing a purposefully sloppy salute at him. "How's it going?"

Shepard returned her salute out of habit and said to her, "Its going fine. I'm here because Legion and a few others file reports with me after every mission." Jack began to interject and Shepard raised his hands to keep her calm, "Now I'm not trying to get you to start filing reports or anything, I know thats not your style, but I wanted to talk to you about some of the things that he mentioned."

Jack sat back against the wall with a huff folding her arms across her chest in defiance. "Oh really? And what, pray tell, did flashlight face have to say?"

"He applauded your performance, but he did state that just before our extraction, you seemed, and these are his words, not mine, 'weary and unfocused.' Would you mind explaining what he meant by that to me?"

The tattooed woman nearly leapt at Shepard as she jumped up from the cot. "'Weary and unfocused!' What the fuck!? I was not weary or unfocused, I'm gonna rip his fucking face off, or his lightbulb, or whatever! Why the hell..."

Shepard had taken a step back from the raging woman and decided to interrupt her before she went off the deep-end. "Hey, easy Jack, I'm not upset. This was his first mission with us and he doesn't really understand humans well yet. Nobody is upset at.."

"Damn right nobody is fucking upset!" Jack hollered at the commander, "I saved the fucking day remember! Me! The criminal! I won today and YOU," she stabbed a finger at his chest, "are not about to take that from me! You.."

"Jack, Jack, relax." His breath caught in his throat as he noticed that a faint blue glow was beginning rise from the woman in her anger. He said in a soothing voice. "Everything is fine, I just want to know what he meant."

Jack was nearly screaming at this point, "I was tired! That's what he meant! We fought, unsupported, for nearly an hour against a bunch of collector bug assholes and he has an engine, and I don't. So yeah, I was tired, duh. That fucktard is going to.."

"Jack.. He didn't mean anything by it." Shepard said as the biotic began to calm down and the room began to lose it's blue tint. "I just want to know how we can help keep you from overtaxing your biotics. I had a biotic teammate pass out once from exhaustion and I want to know how I can help prevent that for you."

"I'm fine Shep, don't worry about me," she said turning away, stifling a yawn. "Ya get tired, throwing people around and catching bullets and whatnot. It just happens." Jack calmed down just as quickly as she had gotten angry. "I'm sure even you get tired mister hero-boy." she said as she turned and sat on her cot once again.

Shepard decided that there was no way in hell that Jack was going to ask for help from him, much less accept any. "Alright then Jack, no worries. Can I ask another question though?" He asked cautiously.

Jack regarded the commander sceptically, "Maybe, but it better be a good one."

"What if we ran some drills in the hangar. The other specialists run exercises from time-to-time in there anyways so its set up pretty nicely. You should go target shooting someday. Ya know, why throw someone across the room with your biotics when you can just shoot them in the face?" Shepard was really trying to reach out to the convict's crazy sense of humor.

Her response was cold, serious, and actually made him nervous for a moment. "Its more fun to kill them on my own than with a gun." _She really is a psychopath, why did I even let her on this ship? She's gonna trow a tantrum and rip out a bulkhead someday._

"Ok then Jack, have it your way." Shepard began to walk away from the psychotic biotic and continued talking as he made his way up the stairs. "Just remember, the hangar is always available to you, just ask EDI to turn off the kinetic sensors so the gunfire doesn't set off any alarms."

Jack didn't give him a reply as the pressure door opened and he walked out. She heard the elevator doors open and close before she decided to try to go to sleep, she didn't much feel like digging around at Cerberus and their experiments anymore. Laying her head down on the small pillow, she immediately felt the exhaustion that she had been diligently ignoring up until point, and quickly began to fall asleep. _Maybe there was something to what he said, I'll probably talk to Zaeed about it tomorrow. He's always fun to talk to._ And with that, Subject Zero fell asleep.


End file.
